Capo 2 for Mac: music learning software done even better

The first version of Capo was an impressive piece of Mac software, but Capo 2 …

Last year we wrote about a new product from SuperMegaUltraGroovy Software called Capo. The well-designed software was essentially a tool to help users learn to play music by ear, and it worked by slowing down songs without changing their pitch. Capo restored our confidence that not all competent developers were focusing on the iPhone, and that there could still be high quality software for the Mac. Now, Capo 2 has launched. While one developer can’t support an entire platform, Chris Liscio is still making really great software.

At its root, Capo 2 still focuses on slowing down music without changing the pitch, enabling users to practice along with difficult passages of music. The technique has been used since the days of record players, and is one that many budding musicians are familiar with. The core functionality of Capo is still there, and if you are interested in learning more, you can read what we had to say about the original version of Capo.

In the newest version of Capo, the waveform view has changed to spectrogram. Now instead of seeing the fluctuating amplitude of the music, you actually see the individual pitches. Individual tones are represented by what can only be described as smears; the view looks a lot like an old time piano roll.

The higher the pitch on the spectrogram, the higher it is represented; the longer the streak, the longer the duration of the note. On its own, the spectrogram would only be mildly useful, as it only shows you the relative distance between notes. What makes Capo 2 remarkable is that a user can trace the smears of the music and, in turn, automatically create tablature. (This was enough to make me drop a few expletives in amazement.) If you click on a given smear, the note representing the pitch gets played back to you.

Music with just a solo guitar can work well, and with an entire band, it works better than you'd think. You still have to use your ear to differentiate between instruments, but as you use the application, you learn to read which notes are the fundamentals and which notes are part of the overtone series.

The smears! They need tracing!

Generally speaking, the darker the smear, the more likely it's the note being played, although quiet notes can also be displayed very faintly. Luckily, you can increase the contrast of the spectrogram, allowing even the faintest of notes to be seen. The feature is amazing, and the more you use it, the better you get at using it.

The instrument you're creating tablature for doesn’t have to be a guitar either; Capo will tab out parts for bass, mandolin, and ukelele. The application will also deal elegantly with just about any tuning you can think of—there are over 50 for guitar alone. You can also adjust the tablature to take into account a capo and, if a user feels that the string the note is being displayed on in the tablature isn’t the best option, it can be easily changed.

The feature isn’t all roses, though. Since the application's UI doesn’t resize vertically, you only get a smidgen under three octaves at a time on the spectrogram. Also, the mapped notes on the spectrogram don’t play back with the music. This would be helpful to see how accurately the tablature matches the audio of your song, but unfortunately, we were told that this was largely a performance issue. At this time there is also no way to print tablature created by the app; instead, you need to open the application every time you want to reference it.

The other major feature in the newest version of Capo 2 allows a user to place chord markers throughout a song, which is helpful when you are playing along. Incredibly, Capo can also make an educated guess of what chord is being played based on the frequencies it examines at a particular point in the music.

Chords, like magic!

While it isn’t 100 percent accurate, the feature is impressive. Capo can recognize major, minor, diminished, augmented, minor 7, major 7, dominant 7, suspended 2, suspended 4, and add 9 chords. And, even more types of chords can be entered in manually. Sometimes Capo comes up with the wrong chord—the algorithm it uses isn’t perfect—and that’s when you have to use your ear to make some corrections. Generally, it’s not far off though, and sometimes a starting point is all some people need.

Capo 2 is a $19 upgrade for Capo 1 users, or $49 for new users. SuperMegaUltraGroovy Software has made a demo available that allows 5 minutes of work on any song. The application is a great tool for budding musicians, and is a glowing example of well-written Mac OS X software.